Editor's note: Caring for You is a monthly feature that highlights the work of Cape Codders who deliver health care without fanfare.

Cindy Turner-Maffei, MA, ALC, IBCLC, is a lead faculty and lactation consultant for the Healthy Children Project's Center for Breastfeeding in East Sandwich. She lives in Falmouth.

Q. Can you describe your background and career path?

A. In graduate school, I studied nutrition and worked as a student intern in a WIC (Women, Infants, Children) program housed in a Jamaica Plain community health center. While I knew the theoretical health benefits of breastfeeding, in the WIC clinic I learned that in a direct way — the medical charts of the babies who were breastfed were much slimmer than those of babies fed infant formula. The formula-fed babies had far more sick visits for ear infections, digestive difficulties, colic, allergy and other conditions than the breastfed babies. Years of self-directed study, clinical experience helping mothers and babies, and eventually personal experience as a breastfeeding mother led me to focus my career on this fascinating interface between mothers and babies. I worked for 14 years as a nutritionist and breastfeeding coordinator for the Cape Cod WIC Program before coming to the Healthy Children Project.

Q. What do you do in your current position?

A. I develop and present training programs to help health professionals learn how to promote, protect and support breastfeeding families. I have also been involved in several research projects designed to improve breastfeeding care nationally and internationally and have co-authored numerous books and articles about breastfeeding, predominantly for professionals.

Q. What are some of the benefits of breastfeeding for babies and mothers?

A. There are so many that it's difficult to list them. We've known for a long time that breastfed babies are assisted with resisting infectious diseases because mothers' milk includes immune factors as well as ideal nutrients for small human beings. Now we're learning that babies who receive mothers' milk gain not just short-term protection, but have significantly reduced risk of severe illnesses such as diabetes, some types of childhood cancer, and a 50-percent reduction in risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Women who breastfeed garner reductions in the risk of breast cancer, postpartum depression, heart attack, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Bottom line: A 2010 Harvard study estimated that optimizing breastfeeding rates could save our country $13 billion annually on health care costs.

Q. What are some of the barriers that keep women from initiating and maintaining breastfeeding? How can these barriers be overcome?

A. Research indicates that while nearly three-quarters of women nationwide intend to breastfeed exclusively (meaning giving no other food to their babies but human milk), fewer than half leave the hospital doing so. Many breastfed babies also receive infant formula within two days of birth, even though that is generally not medically necessary. That is because of universal misunderstanding of the mechanics of lactation, coupled with persistent practices in maternity settings that interrupt breastfeeding, including mother-baby separation and scheduling and limiting feeding. A good part of my career has been spent encouraging hospitals and birth centers to adopt a set of simple, beneficial practices known as the "Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding" from the World Health Organization and UNICEF. There are many other barriers that women experience, including the prevalence of unhelpful myths about breastfeeding, the lack of evidence-based education about breastfeeding for both parents and health professionals, uneven partner and family support, and very real pressure associated with the lack of paid maternity leave in this country. Those of us who are not currently parenting infants can help breastfeeding succeed by offering our support and protection, and by advocating for more humane parental leave policies.

Q. What role does the Healthy Children's Center for Breastfeeding play?

A. Healthy Children supports breastfeeding in many ways, including education and training, research and advocacy on the local, state, national and international levels. We offer more than 50 training programs annually to support health professionals and others who assist breastfeeding families to advance their knowledge and skills. We collaborate with Union Institute & University to deliver bachelor's and master's degrees with a focus in human lactation. Healthy Children has also engaged in numerous international research projects that have the potential to not only improve health outcomes, but to save lives in many settings.

Q. What advice would you offer to expectant women who may be nervous about breastfeeding?

A. Explore local resources and support services during pregnancy. Our local hospitals, WIC programs, Center for Breastfeeding, lactation support people and others have great resources to offer. Most importantly, spend the first hours of your baby's life holding your baby skin-to-skin. Whether you plan to breastfeed or not, spending this first sacred hour after birth skin-to-skin with your baby is the ideal way to welcome your baby to life outside the womb.